Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 13, 2017

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU consults with Avichai Mandelblit in December of last year while he was cabinet secretary. Today, the current Attorney General holds the fate of Prime Minister in the palm of his hands.. (photo credit:REUTERS)

A significant change may have occurred in the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend with the Channel 2 report that the police will recommend to indict him.

Until then, the Jerusalem Post had learned that Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit viewed those wanting to indict Netanyahu in the police and the state prosecutors office as lower level officials.

At the highest levels of the police and the state prosecutors office, Mandelblit believed that there was unanimity that the Netanyahu cases, while problematic in appearance, were borderline and risky cases when it came to trying to win a conviction in court.

If the police recommend indicting Netanyahu it would be a watershed moment. No longer would he be able to credibly say there is nothing. No longer would he be able to say that he will provide answers and it will all go away after being questioned just like happened with Opposition leader Isaac Herzog.

One of the primary arms of law enforcement in the country would be saying that its highest levels officials believe the prime minister is guilty of a crime.

And yet Netanyahu would still have a strong chance of staying in power and dodging the bullet.

At the end of the day, the police do not decide who to indict, only Mandelblit does.

In fact, the past in major cases involving public officials, Mandelblits predecessor, Yehuda Weinstein overruled the police a number of times.

Weinstein overruled the police who had recommended indicting Avigdor Liberman in a massive multi-million dollar money-laundering scam (he was eventually indicted and acquitted in a much smaller affair) and former IDF chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi for breach of trust in the Harpaz Affair.

Notably, in the same Harpaz Affair, Weinstein overruled the police who wanted to indict Mandelblit, at the time Netanyahus cabinet secretary, for obstruction of justice in delaying advising Ashkenazi to provide evidence to the police in the Harpaz Affair.

The fact that the police in the past wanted him indicted, could also give Mandelblit some skepticism about automatically endorsing their recommendations for other public officials.

Little can be learned from the impact of a police recommendation regarding Ehud Olmert as he resigned even before they made their recommendation due to a much larger mountain of evidence and corruption affairs and much weaker political support.

But there are also other reasons that the police and an attorney-general see things differently.

Police interrogators often feel officials should be indicted if they are lying or seeming to evade questions or conceal something.

Attorney-generals think more in terms of what can be proven in court and what are the chances of a conviction.

The police also know that they will not be held responsible for bringing down a prime minister, since their recommendation is not binding.

In contrast, Mandelblit has made it clear that his standard for indicting a prime minister is super high in terms of chances of conviction since he would shoulder full responsibility for bringing down Netanyahu with an indictment.

That said, a police recommendation to indict shifts the incentives for Mandelblit.

As long as the top police and top prosecutors recommended not to indict, then Mandelblit could still be in a strong position defying lower level police and prosecutors, many in the media and Netanyahus detractors by not indicting him. He could fall back on simply following the recommendations of the rest of the system.

If the police at the highest levels recommend indicting Netanyahu, and Mandelblit overrules them, he is sticking his neck out.

Mandelblit at the end of the day is a man of the system and his next aspiration in five years would be an appointment to the Supreme Court.

For that, he will need to be taken seriously by the legal establishment far more than he will need political favors, even from Netanyahu.

In that sense, Netanyahus fate could come down to head state prosecutor Shai Nitzan. If Nitzan goes with the police, Mandelblit might be hard-pressed to agree. If Nitzan goes against the police, Mandelblit will still have cover to override the police claiming support from within the system.

Of course, Mandelblit could still override Nitzan, as Weinstein overruled the state prosecutor in his day regarding the multi-million dollar Liberman case.

But Weinstein was far older (about 20 years) and had no great future ambitions to join the Supreme Court (and he was too old to be eligible.)

At the end of the day, the chances of Mandelblit indicting Netanyahu are still low, due to prior Supreme Court rulings making it harder to win public corruption cases, but a recommendation by the police as an institution to indict Netanyahu would definitely move the flagpoles against the prime minister.

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Analysis: What happens to Netanyahu if the police recommend indicting him? - Jerusalem Post Israel News

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Posted By richards on February 13, 2017

A pencil sketch on the living room wall of Henry Morgenthau IIIs home depicts three versions of him: a skinny figure at 13, fatter at 20 and burdened with a grotesque potbelly at 40. Awful fate may be avoided by not following Pas example, the artist wrote to the boy in about 1930.

The artist was making fun of Morgenthaus father, who was his good friend and who carried some extra pounds around his middle. As Morgenthau recalled, his father did not take offense; in fact, he had kind of a sense of history and urged the artist, who was then governor of New York, to sign it. He scrawled F.D.R. on it, and the framed sketch now hangs near a bust of the president who ushered in the New Deal and led the United States through most of World War II.

Perhaps because people didnt tend to live as long back then, Roosevelt didnt draw Morgenthau at 60, 80 or older. But last month, the retired television producer turned 100, and he celebrated by publishing his first book of poetry.

A Sunday in Purgatory, published by Passager Books at the University of Baltimore, draws from his life as a scion of a prominent Jewish American family that includes his grandfather, Henry Morgenthau, who immigrated to New York from Germany in 1866 and served as ambassador to Turkey, and his father, Henry Morgenthau Jr., treasury secretary under Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A younger brother, Robert, served as U.S. district attorney in New York.

The collection also reflects Morgenthaus recent life in Washington, where he moved from Boston seven years ago to be near family. Sitting in his apartment at the retirement community Ingleside at Rock Creek as snow swirled outside, he spoke of how the city had changed since he lived here in the 1930s.

This idea of these old people going to these kind of communities didnt really exist. ... On the whole, you just stayed at home, he said. My grandparents, they didnt have anything like this, he said, gesturing at his sleek black walker a few feet away.

As a documentarian, he spent extensive time with poets and writers, including Robert Lowell. Footage from his 1963 interview with James Baldwin appears in the newly released film, I Am Not Your Negro. In 1991 he wrote Mostly Morgenthaus, a book about his famous family. But aside from a brief foray in the fifth grade, he did not begin writing poetry until he participated in a couple of writing workshops in his 90s.

I dont know just what or why I started. I showed it to a few people and I was encouraged to go on, he said. It developed in sort of conflicting ways. On the one hand it was a way of separating myself from my heritage of a distinguished family.

Several of the poems shed a personal light onto historic events and characters of the American 20th century. When Roosevelt died in 1945, Morgenthau was serving in Gen. George S. Pattons Third Army in Europe, and a letter his father wrote him about dining with the president the night before he died became material for his poem, A Terrific Headache:

Before that last supper, he steadied

the trembling hand

of his long time boss and friend

as he mixed Bourbon Old Fashioneds and nibbled

caviar, a gift from the Soviet ambassador.

Four ladies were his guests.

One of the women was Roosevelts longtime mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherford. His father didnt allow that information to appear in his authorized biography, but Morgenthau includes it in his poem, and also touches on Eleanor Roosevelts private musings about the shortcomings of her marriage.

He and Eleanor remained close until her death; he and his family donated many of her letters to the FDR Presidential Library and Museum at Hyde Park, the Library of Congress, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. But Morgenthau still has folders full of correspondence from her, as well as a couple of dozen White House invitations.

Sipping ginger ale as he sat at a curly maple desk that once belonged to his mother, he recalled visiting John F. Kennedy at the White House with Eleanor Roosevelt. Jackie wasnt there, but [daughter] Caroline was there, and Kennedy brought her out, holding his hand. Mrs. Roosevelt, she was great with Caroline, and she told her stories of how it was that they would have Christmas in the White House. Afterward, she said, I didnt see where Jackie had any place to do any work.

Morgenthaus study and living room are lined with books, art, and photographs of him with FDR, JFK, Jimmy Carter and, beside the menorahs and carefully tended orchids, one taken with Barack Obama when he was campaigning for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

I became an early supporter, he said. I didnt think that Obama had any chance of winning, but I thought it was important that he make a good showing, and for that I supported him. I gave more money than I ever have before or since. For all the things that he stood for and being an African American.

Morgenthau is, by contrast, worried and horrified about the White Houses present occupant, calling President Trump a kind of pied piper who is leading us into what could easily be the destruction of civilization.

For Morgenthau, living to 100 has meant lifting the veil not only on others secrets but his own as well. In his poems, he refers to a lifelong dread of being uncovered. I need to be the person/my friends and family believe me to be./I cant be the person I am,/ but cant push him out.

Asked about that, he flashed a big smile and nodded. Well, there were a lot of things that different readers interpret in different ways, he said. Ill say I had a difficult childhood. I think I had a considerable learning disability. I was never a very good student, even though I was interested in intellectual things [and] I had things which were sort of festering, about my identity, including sexual identity, which is sort of referred to in a number of those poems.

Since moving to Washington and working with a terrific psychiatrist, he said, Ive found a way of sorting out these feelings which at times have been terrifying. ... Id lived with this fear of exposing myself, and I tended not only to be a loner, which I was, but also self-consciously alienating people as a way of keeping them at a distance, and at times being very arrogant. Now, he said, Im much more outgoing with people, and more sensitive to their sensibilities.

Did poetry help him to open up? Or did opening up spur him to write poetry?

He paused for a long time. I hadnt thought about that, but I think it was both.

Living at Ingleside has also been a catalyst. Although he skips many of the facilitys group activities to make time for writing, many of his poems, including the title one, address issues around nearing the end of life that are implicit in living there.

I think age, in its various stages, is sort of a nexus for community, he said. I feel very comfortable being with people somewhere near my own age. I wrote this poem, A Sunday In Purgatory it is a kind of waiting place for the end; everyone knows its not far away. At Ingleside, People feel pretty free to talk with each other about this. And Im probably now in the top one percent.

His wife, with whom he describes a very close and satisfying relationship, died in 2006; his three children have, he says, been enthusiastic about the collection.

Im thrilled that he found this passion, said his daughter, Sarah Morgenthau, who lives in the District. I think thats a large part of why Dad is 100, is that he continues to push himself and to engage and to experiment with new m
ediums, (and) I think it enabled him to sort of articulate some of the things that hes wanted to say.

His publisher, which specializes in the work of people over 50, hopes Morgenthaus book can open a door for others. Im feeling that this book can make an entry point for other writers to see that they can possibly write or publish a book in their 90s, said co-editor Kendra Kopelke.

That said, they pushed the collection through relatively quickly, Morgenthau said. There are quite a few poems that I considered a work in progress, he said with a smile. Although it usually takes a year to evolve, they wanted to do it in three months ... I guess because of my age.

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Posted By richards on February 13, 2017

New York Times

Stephen Miller Is a 'True Believer' Behind Core Trump Policies New York Times President Trump congratulating Mr. Miller, center, after the senior adviser's swearing-in last month. Credit Al ... Mexican heritage celebrations and Iraq war protests were things of particular offense. He produced a 2003 ... Mr. Miller wrote many of ... and more »

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Posted By simmons on February 13, 2017

Israel a point of refuge

I am troubled that The Herald would have given Mr. Dan Turner a platform to bash Israel (Zionism is a racist ideology.) Zionism is the belief that Israel is the Jewish homeland. How is this racist? There are 57 Islamic countries. Yet, most of these countries are far less tolerant than Israel. Why does Mr. Turner single out Israel?

There is a reason that oppressed Africans take refuge in Israel as do members of the LGBT community from neighboring Arab countries precisely because it is not racist. Moreover, Mr. Turner is misinformed when he states that the Israelis never offered peace to the Palestinians. It was the Palestinians, and not the Israelis, who rejected the UN partition in 1947. Bill Clintons book sets the record straight on who rejected peace.

Mr. Turner attempts to give his opinion some legitimacy by stating he was a past president of Congregational Beth Israel. I am a longtime member of the same congregation, and can assure the public that Mr. Turners extremely hateful views toward Israel are shared by very few temple congregants, if any. Disagreeing with how Israel fights terrorism is one thing implying that it is racist is simply ignorant.

Don Pompan, Salinas

Outrageous accusations

Dan Turners op-ed is just plain false. Zionism is the goal of a Jewish state in Israel, the former Palestine of the British Mandate. Turner made outrageous accusations about what Zionists have said about Palestinians. I have not seen Zionists spend time verbally personally attacking Palestinians. Zionists have rightfully criticized the terrorism by Palestinians.

Jews are indigenous to Israel and the West Bank, having lived there for more than 3,000 years. This land is not and never has been Palestinian land. He tried to use the analogy of foreigners occupying California, when a better comparison would be that the U.S. defeated Mexico in a war, and Mexico lost possession of California to the U.S.

Norman G. Licht, San Carlos

Full life possible for all

Jews contributed creative endeavors for the benefit of mankind and won Nobel Prizes. This despite the anti-Semitism they endured in Europe, where Mr. Turner says great scientific advances were made. Palestinian hate and self-pity, not an accident of geography, prevent Palestinians from contributing to the common good. There is nothing blatantly racist in this observation.

Britains post-WWI Palestine Mandate was divided between Israel, including the Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria west of the Jordan, and The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, lands east of the Jordan. The Hashemite clan is from Saudi Arabias Hejaz. Jordans first king arrived there from the Saudi Hejaz in 1921. Are the Hashemites settlers on Palestinian land?

The Washington Post in 2006 reported: Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned all Israeli Arabs to leave the port city of Haifa so the militant group could step up attacks without fear of shedding the blood of fellow Muslims.

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This is exactly what Arab leaders were saying in 1948.

The Arabs in Israel are citizens, and serve as judges, doctors and in other ways that make Israel the only country in the Middle East where a full life is possible for all.

Julia Lutch, Davis

Palestinian exploitation

Dan Turner should be commended for his condemnation of the Netanyahu governments support of ultra-orthodox Israelis position on exploitation of Palestinians (Zionism is a racist ideology, Feb. 5). Their destruction of ancient olive groves and seizure of Palestinian land is clearly in violation of international agreements.

Support of this position by United States Jews is contrary to the best interests of Israel. Sowing the seeds of hatred among Muslims will only assure the eventual destruction of Israel. This position is not anti-Semitic and is supported by our organization, http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org.

Bill Donovan, Carmel

An act of bravery

A profile in courage has recently been expressed by Mr. Dan Turner, former president of Congregation Beth Israel. Although thousands have spoken out against the continuing unjust treatment of the Palestinians by Israel, it is something else to have it come from one within the flock.

His willingness to not ignore the valuable principles that the Jewish religion actually teaches, is not only commendable, but given the pressures that are put onto the American Jewish populace by the Zionist movement, his written truth becomes an act of bravery.

Joyce Hamza, Monterey

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Letters to the editor, Feb. 12, 2017: How is Zionism racist? - Monterey County Herald

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Posted By simmons on February 13, 2017

Nearly 25 years ago I traveled to Poland to participate in the March of the Living, to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate, as the programs website explains.

Our group visited Nazi death camps and Jewish ghost towns, seeking to gain a better understanding of the destruction that happened there. In every place we visited, we could feel the presence of lost Jewish life.

When one marches, as we did throughout Poland wearing blue coats emblazoned with Stars of David, one expresses life. When one walks through a Holocaust death camp, as we walked from Auschwitz to Birkenau on the climactic day of our march, one honors the dead.

So when I read a recent article in The Forward about how the March had inspired White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner to solidify the teenagers commitment to Zionism and a right-wing vision of support for Israel, I was taken aback.

For me, the March deepened my resolve to work for a world of peace and tolerance. And it cemented my commitment to Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people. What it did not do was inspire me to work for an administration that would shut out those fleeing mass murder, such as is happening today with Syrias refugees.

Because of the March, I devoted my career to peace. First, I joined the Peace Corps, where I wrote about my passion for Tikkun Olam, or healing the world, in my entry essay - a personal sentiment that was rooted in a rejection of what I saw in Poland. The March also deepened my Zionism, which is why I later chose to promote peace and security for Israel by becoming the founding political director of J Street.

It was therefore extremely troubling to watch the Trump administration, where Jared Kushner serves as a key advisor, issue an Executive Order to prevent Syrian refugees from coming to our shores - on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, of all days.

If anything, that day should have been one where we expressed solidarity with those fleeing an atrocity, not one when we slammed the door to freedom and safety shut.

Sadly, that executive order expressed the opposite of what I learned on the March.

The Holocaust was a monumental human failure. The exclusion and eventual mass murder of the Jewish people was visible for all the world to see - yet the world often turned its back on the Jews then, and calamity ensued. That shame still lives with us today. As Jews, we have been blessed to have had the opportunity to renew our culture since the Holocaust, to rise up from the darkness and create a positive world for ourselves. Yet no one can renew themselves alone.

Jews have prospered in the United States because we have been included in American life. We engage neighbors of all backgrounds, conduct business together, live together and are treated as equals. Jews have also succeeded in Israel largely because people around the world have invested in and supported the Jewish state.

No one people is an island unto itself. When we are, such as before and during the Holocaust, darkness descends.

I therefore hope that in the future, we choose to honor the victims of the Holocaust, not by turning our backs on refugees fleeing a new horror, but instead by doing unto others what we would have rather had done unto us during that dark period.

This was the core lesson of the March for me: Exclusion brings destruction while inclusion brings life.

Joel Rubin is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and congressional candidate in Maryland. He currently is the President of the Washington Strategy Group and can be followed on Twitter at @joelmartinrubin.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

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Posted By simmons on February 12, 2017

In a new report circulating privately in Jewish policy circles this month, two leading pro-Israel groups charge that Jewish communal efforts against the BDS movement have largely failed.

The report, issued by the Anti-Defamation League and the Israel-based Reut Institute, claims that Jewish groupss investments in fighting what they call the assault on Israels legitimacy has grown twentyfold since 2010, but that results remain elusive.

In 2015 and 2016, a long list of Jewish groups, in addition to the Israeli government itself, announced their own programs to counter the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. Organizations and donors pledged tens of millions of dollars to the effort.

The report claims that its not working.

The challenge to the fundamental legitimacy of Israel[is] growing around the world, the report says.

The report comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government adopts an increasingly hard-line approach on settlements.

But while the reports authors acknowledge that the Israeli governments own actions play a role in the worldwide growth of anti-Israel sentiment, they propose their own action plan for what they call the pro-Israel network.

The prescription seems to contain a contradiction. On the one hand, it calls for a big tent approach that accepts progressive critics of Israel. And the other, it demands an all-out assault on leading critics of Israel, sometimes using covert means.

The instigators must be singled out from the other groups, and handled uncompromisingly, publicly or covertly, the report reads.

The report is the product of an unlikely partnership between the ADL, a historic Jewish civil rights group, and the national security-focused Reut. News of the partnership was first reported by the Forward last February.

At 30 pages, the document offers a strategic framework for opposing the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, among other efforts that the authors characterize as attacks on Israels legitimacy.

The report opposes new spending on pro-Israel efforts. Instead, it advocates for the better targeting of preexisting programs; the use of legal measures to take on incitement against Jews and Israel on social media, and additional investment in intelligence and strategy.

ADL and Reut are only circulating print copies of the report. The Forward was given copies on the condition that they not be posted online in their entirety.

In an interview at the Forwards offices in early February, ADL national president Jonathan Greenblatt acknowledged that the actions of the Israelis plays a role in what the report characterizes as the growth of worldwide anti-Israel sentiment.

The government of Israel can do a lot to change this dynamic, Greenblatt said. So can the Palestinian leadership.

Yet the report itself appears careful not to make specific demands of the Israeli government. Instead, it acknowledges that the lack of progress on political solutions are directly empowering the so-called delegitimization movement.

Its recommendations are targeted mostly at Jewish communal groups, and the broader hasbarah, or pro-Israel public relations, apparatus.

In places, the report appears to call for a broadening of the pro-Israel tent, and an end to the exclusion of progressive groups from Jewish spaces.

It calls for a narrower definition of delegitimization that will allow left-wing groups to be welcome in Jewish spaces. It also calls for authentic solidarity with other minority groups on issues of immigrant rights and racism. It cautions against narrow expectations of transactional benefits, arguing that such work can generally help the Jewish community re-acquire credibility among other minorities.

We invented intersectionality, Greenblatt told the Forward, referring to the ADLs history of finding common cause on civil rights issues across ethnic and religious lines.

Yet at times, the reports calls for a big tent seem strained.

The report suggests that red lines for inclusion in the broad pro-Israel network should be drawn at those who express criticism that is consistently one-sided, not nuanced and without context. That language has the potential to exclude many groups on the Jewish left that are fed up with Israels 50-year occupation of the West Bank.

The report also refers to targeted boycotts of West Bank settlements, a tactic supported by many progressive Jews in Israel and the U.S., as a challenge.

It calls for alternatives to targeted boycotts, but its recommendations can be difficult to parse: The polarization around the issue of targeted boycott is an indication of the lack of ethical clarity necessary in order to stand united against delegitimization by fostering diverse coalitions.

Finally, while the report advocates efforts to engage and win over most critics of Israel, it advocates a hardline approach to what it calls the instigators.

Gidi Grinstein, president of Reut, defended the call for acting uncompromisingly, in covert and public ways, against these critics.

We have to be very, very strategic, Grinstein said.

The reports authors argued that this narrow group of instigators are modern day anti-Semites.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at nathankazis@forward.com or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

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Can Harsh Targeting of BDS 'Instigators' Rescue Failing Pro-Israel Effort? - Forward

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Posted By richards on February 12, 2017

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Talmud, The: the basic compendium of Jewish law and thought; its tractates mainly comprise the discussions collectively known as the Gemara, which elucidate the germinal statements of law (mishnayot) collectively known as the Mishnah; when unspecified refers to the Talmud Bavli, the edition developed in Babylonia, and edited at the end of the fifth century C.E.; the Talmud Yerushalmi is the edition compiled in the Land of Israel at the end of the fourth century C.E.

Classes, in-depth lectures, overviews and more on the Mishnah and Gemara

The Talmud is the mainstay of the Jewish oral tradition. Explore this important area of Jewish scholarship with our array of classes, in depth-lectures, overviews and more on the Mishnah and Gemara

Introductory Text-based Talmud Study

By Eliezer Wolf

These Talmud classes will be studying and analyzing the third chapter of tractate Bava Metzia, which presents the Jewish approach in many matters of civil law, particularly vis--vis the different degrees of liability assumed by guardians, renters and bor...

How deep can Talmud go?

By Tzvi Freeman

Quantum logic helps explain a halachic ruling of Maimonides, a puzzling story of the Talmud, a Midrash about the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, and a rabbinic teaching about the relationship between Torah and existence.

An Introduction to Talmud

By Eliezer Wolf

This introductory class to Talmud explores the rich history of the Oral Tradition, explains the structure of the Talmud, introduces some of its famed personalities and presents the layout of the Talmud page.

By Yehuda Leib Schapiro

This class clarifies what the Talmud consists of, its function and how it embodies the entire Oral Torah.

By Adin Even-Israel (Steinsaltz)

Rabbi Steinsaltz introduces the "Oral Law" (the Talmud and associated works) and contrasts it with the "Written Law" (the Bible). He discusses some of the features that make the Talmud a unique work and suggests that it can only be understood properly if ...

By Adin Even-Israel (Steinsaltz)

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz Even-Israel provides an introduction to the Jewish Oral Law as a preface to his discussion on the Jewish perspective to medical ethics.

A Text-Based, Skills-Building Talmud Class

By Mendel Kaplan

Learn how to study Talmud line-by-line and word-by-word. In this intermediate level class you will learn to understand the unique give-and-take style of Talmudic argument.

Scroll Down - Part 7

By Michael Chighel

Since the redaction of the Talmud around the year 500, no single text apart from the Torah itself has played a more vital role in the preservation and development of Jewish education. What is the Talmud?

How and why was the Oral Torah written?

By Yehuda Shurpin

The Talmud is a collection of writings that covers the full gamut of Jewish law and tradition

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Posted By richards on February 12, 2017

By Samantha Kay Smith Special to The Independent

Feb. 1kicked off Black History Month.

March: National Womens History Month.

May: Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month.

June: LGBTQ History Month.

September: National Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month.

October: National Italian American Heritage Month.

November: National American Indian Heritage Month.

We have just started one of the most celebrated of our diversity themed heritage and history months with Black History Month. Most of our other months throughout the year are also dedicated to underrepresented portions of our history. These months are when we try to tell an entire peoples history in just 30 days.

We dont try to do this to any other history. We dont try to tell American history in one month. By only dedicating one month to all of these histories, we dont learn the complex and beautiful histories that make our nation.

Have you heard of Alice Paul? She helped lead the Womens Suffrage Movement and advocated for the Equal Rights Amendment to be added to the Constitution.

What about Edmonia Lewis? A famous African-American, American-Indian sculptor who attended Oberlin College in the 19th century.

Do you know who Mary and Joseph Tape are? Mary sued the local school principal for barring her Chinese-American daughter from attending. This was in 1885, almost 70 years before Brown v. Board of Education.

Do you know about Alan Turing? Did you know about him before you saw "The Imitation Game"? He was a British scientist who revolutionized computer technology during World War II. He was also imprisoned because he was gay.

Bayard Rustin? Emma Lazarus? Alex Haley? Madame C.J. Walker? Jonas Salk? Maria Tallchief? Carlos Juan Finlay? Phillips Wheatley? Cesar Chaves? Charlene Teters? Irving Berlin? Loreta Janeta Velazques?

How many of those names did you know? These are all men and women who influenced America and American culture. They all are men and women that would have only been recognized during their Enter-Identifier-Here History/Heritage Month. They are men, women, black, Jewish, American Indian, Asian Pacific, East Asian, Latino, and every other combination of identities. And they are all people who should be recognized in our National History.

Unfortunately, because these stories are almost never told, we have to have special diversity months.

At Spring Hill, we believe these people are American history. We should be teaching black history all year 'round. We believe in teaching womens history all year 'round. We believe in teaching Jewish American, American Indian, Asian Pacific American, LGBTQ, and every other history out there. We should be teaching a reflective history of the men and women who have made America and our world.

And we should be ensuring that every student of history can see themselves in our shared history.

Samantha Kay Smith is the director of Spring Hill Historic Home, and writes the blog, "Kendal's House on the Hill" published at IndeOnline.com. Read her blog on The Independent's website and reach her at 330-833-6749.

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Posted By richards on February 12, 2017

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2017

A McGill student politician's tweet saying"punch a Zionist today"has sparked calls for safer campuses, along with his resignation from student politics at the Montreal university.

Igor Sadikov, 22, a member of the Student Society ofMcGillUniversity's legislative council, sent the tweetMondayand deleted it Thursday.

Sadikov's tweet was posted Monday and deleted later in the week. (Twitter)

Steven Slimovitch, a Montreal lawyer with the human rights and Jewish advocacy organization B'nai Brith Canada, denounced the tweet as "anti-Semitic garbage."

He said anti-Zionism has become a way to sublimate anti-Semitism.

"You can't stand on the street corner and do what Ernst Zundel used to do and say the Holocaust never existed. People will laugh at you," Slimovitch told CBC Montreal's Daybreak.

"But see, the new face of anti-Semitism is anti-Zionism."

Sadikov is a member of the Student Society of McGill University's legislative council. (SSMU/ssmu.mcgill.ca)

Anti-Zionists are not traditionally defined as anti-Semitic, but they do oppose the state of Israel's policies, or even the existence of the Jewish state.

Sadikov later apologized on social media for his original tweet, explaining it was not an attack on Jewish students.

"Given my own Jewish heritage, I believe that we must continue to disentangle Jewish identity from Zionism," Sadikov wrote.

Slimovitch doubted the student fully understood what he was saying.

"It's a standard answer for someone who, at the core, is knowingly or unknowingly spewing anti-Semitic garbage."

A coalition of McGill students posted on itsFacebook page that a tweet such as Sadikov's makes everyone on campus feel unsafe. They are calling for his resignation.

"It is appalling that an elected representative who holds significant power within the McGill community is advocating violence against Zionists," the post on Vote No McGill stated.

In December, tensions on campus made headlines when white supremacist posters began appearing in the neighbourhood aroundthe school.

The posters featured the slogan "Make Canada Great Again" a reference to now U.S. President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" election campaign motto.

The campus posters featured symbols against Islam, communism and homosexuality.

"We seem to have lost the concept that a university is a place of learning," Slimovitch said.

"It's a place where students go to advance their education. They shouldn't be afraid to walk the halls."

The anti-Zionist tweetalso follows the style of the recently popularized "punch a Nazi" social media slogan.

In January, Richard Spencer,a man who claims he coined the term "alt-right" and runs a white nationalist website,was punched in the face during Trump's inauguration.

The phrase "punch a Nazi" became popularfollowing the attack.

Slimovitch said that no matter what the context, violence has no place in a free and democratic society.

"The comparison is, it's OK to punch the American because he's a far-right neo-Nazi, so you know, it's like a Zionist. I mean, that's just absurd."

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'Punch a Zionist' tweet by McGill student politician prompts concern for campus safety - CBC.ca

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